Love
by izzysheppard
Summary: Alison Kelly had never really been in love. After all, she was Jack Kelly's little sister. He made it clear from day one that she was Off. Limits.


p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Alison Kelly had never really been in love. She was Jack Kelly's little sister - she was Off. Limits. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"But Spot Conlon didn't give a damn about limits. Spot Conlon called her pretty when she was twelve years old during a quick trip to Brooklyn with Jack, who looked ready to kill Spot but knew better than to commit homicide when he was in Brooklyn territory./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Alison blushed the whole way home when he kissed her hand goodbye./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Jack had only let Alison sell alone a few times, so it was a surprise to her when she was able to convince him to let her sell on her own easily for several days. She met Spot Conlon on the Bridge one of those days. They threw sticks off the bridge and watched to see whose stick would go under faster. They held hands once, and, though Spot would deny it for twenty years afterwards, gave Alison her first kiss one of those days./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Then Jack found out through his birdies that his thirteen year old sister was seeing Spot Conlon, King of Brooklyn. He went storming over to Brooklyn and very politely informed Spot that he was not afraid to start a turf war if he kept seeing his sister./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Turf wars were a nasty business, and it certainly wasn't worth the risk to Spot./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Alison went to the Bridge the next day. And the next. And the next. Spot didn't show. On the fifth day of waiting, Spot was already there with another girl. They were holding hands, and Spot kissed her on the cheek./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Well, if Jack hadn't asked Race to follow her after that, no one in Manhattan would have known that in the late afternoon about three weeks after the whole affair, Alison stormed onto Brooklyn territory with her head held high, punched Spot Conlon in the nose, and calmly walked away without a word./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Race just watched in awe./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Three years later, Alison Kelly still had never really been in love. Not that she'd ever say anything about it, because honestly, who wants to have that conversation with Jack Kelly's little sister?/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Well, David Jacobs had never even HEARD of Jack Kelly. And he didn't even notice Alison until she was grabbing newspapers out of his hands to verify that he had, indeed, only been given nineteen papers when he paid for twenty. And boy, did he notice her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A girl who couldn't have been much younger than himself (or much shorter, either, for she seemed pretty tall). A girl that was long and lean with a dirty face, slightly unkempt braid down her back, and a hat jammed on her head. A girl who was thin yet looked strong enough to knock him to Tuesday and have run around the world by the time he came to. The only girl he had ever seen wearing pants that didn't quite reach down to her ankles. She was definitely pretty, from his perspective. When his blue eyes met her brown, he realized that the word he was actually looking for was beautiful. Alison, she said her name was./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"David, he said his name was. David with the long nose who was only just taller than she was, and probably a year or so older. David who her brother bought fifty papers for when he got nineteen instead of twenty. David who blushed when she offered to teach him how to hawk headlines and sell papers. David who for some reason she trusted immediately./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Trust was something all the other boys knew was hard to come by when it came to Alison, unless you were Crutchie or Jack. None of the boys said anything when she said she trusted him at the end of that first day. Scratched their heads, but definitely didn't dare to say anything./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The strike hadn't been Alison's idea. Well, technically it HAD been her and David's idea, but neither of them meant it when they mentioned such an idea to Jack. But she was sure as hell going to stand with her friends and brother and fight for her rights./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"David for the most part watched from afar during the strike, not wanting to cause any trouble for his family or get his little brother hurt, but wanting to help stand up for his new friends. He watched from afar as the Kellys and his own brother were quite literally thrown from Pulitzers office. He watched from afar during that first fight until the Bulls showed up. Alison ran back for Crutchie, and David got right in the middle of it as he helped Race, Specs, and Mush pulled Alison away kicking and screaming to prevent her from getting arrested, too./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"(Even from afar he knew they'd all be doomed without Alison Kelly.)/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Even with the newsies on the front page, he suspected that Alison was still upset at Jacobi's while the boys all celebrated their newfound fame. He later learned that she and Jack had fought the night before, and he could only imagine what was said that seemed to have put Ali in a state of quiet, angry resolve. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Alison had never thought that Jack would choose going back to prison over escaping with her. She knew that David was right behind her, she knew that he would see it if she cried. But goddammit it hurt so bad./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She was grateful that he never said anything to her about noticing that she had cried herself to sleep on his bed while he slept on the floor./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Alison certainly never thought that Jack would double-cross her, or call her a burden. She never thought that she'd hear him say that he wanted to leave for Santa Fe without her, or accuse her of not really wanting to go. (She didn't, but that was beside the point.) It would take her years to realize the hurt in his eyes and his own voice as he said it to her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"That was the day that she didn't let herself cry, but firmly resolved herself and helped Denton write their own paper, with a title she came up with. The Newsies Banner./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Strong. Beautiful. Independent. Tall. Witty. Loyal. A little cynical. Sarcastic has hell. Fragile. Intelligent. All the words that went through David's mind to describe Alison as she and David had a quiet moment that night together. Amazing. The only word that he could process has he kissed her. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He didn't want her to leave. He jokingly threatened to get on the next train and follow her all the way to Santa Fe and bring her back./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He loved her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She didn't want to leave. She wanted to learn how to write the headlines she'd hawked all her life. She wanted David to really take that next train and bring her back to him./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The governor had offered them a ride to the train station in his carriage. In trying to make polite conversation, he asked Alison what she was excited for in Santa Fe./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Her silence made Jack realize that he'd never actually asked her if she wanted to go. He wanted to hit himself for not realizing that she would go wherever he wanted them to if it would make him happy. He could also see that going there together now would be a mistake. Not with the rift that now lay in between them. Not when his little sister smiled like that when he asked the governor of New York to turn his carriage around./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"David nearly cried out in relief when the boys shouted that the carriage was coming back. She chose him, not Santa Fe. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"When their eyes met, she made her way to him and kissed him in front of The World and everybody. Ignored the catcalls from the boys, the quiet "aw" from Romeo, and the disgusted sounds from their respective nine and seventeen year old brothers. With her forehead against his, Alison whispered that she loved him. David did the same./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Verdana; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Alison Kelly had never really been in love before. That is, until she fell in love with the tall boy who was cheated out of a newspaper./span/p 


End file.
